What is Canine Assisted Therapy?
Canine Assisted Therapy involves social interaction, the experience of delight, and multiple therapeutic benefits derived from canine companionship. It is used with both children and adults, in hospitals, nursing facilities, rehabilitation centers, mental health facilities, elder care centers, boarding schools, and schools for special needs children.
Studies have shown that being around dogs, playing with them, and just handling them decreases stress, increases physical activity, relieves depression and anxiety, calms and motivates patients in hospitals and rehab centers, and helps normalize difficult situations. Groups of people that have benefited from Canine Assisted Therapy include nursing home patients, hospice patients and their families, special education students and children, autistic children, children with behavioral problems, prison inmates, teenagers and adults with substance abuse problems, senior citizens, hospital patients, and rehabilitation patients. Canine Assisted Therapy works particularly well for very young children and autistic kids who are not verbal because they are too young for talk therapy. It also works well for children that do not trust adults and children that have difficulty focusing and sitting still.
A child that is learning how to give a dog commands also learns how to appreciate the fact that other people would feel good if he (or she) did what was asked of him because he feels good when the dog follows his directions. Dogs also take a person's mind off their problems and off stressful events such as school tests, hospital procedures and operations, and stressful family visits and events. A dog cannot fail to cheer up a depressed person and will often trigger memories and offer comfort to elderly people. Working with a dog increases a person's activity level, encouraging walking and playing. People with physical challenges will find that their bodies relax under the touch of a dog, and the dog will motivate movement such as crawling, walking, moving limbs, and exercising muscles.
According to an article in the Salt Lake Tribune, Catherine Pomeroy, a teacher for students with disabilities, regards canine therapy as beneficial. "I love having the therapy dogs and their people come," she says. "Sometimes the kids don't respond to what we do with them every day, or to the same old thing. But they always respond well to the dogs. It's really hard to motivate some of them to do anything like crawl or open their hands. But they'll do it for the dogs." A dog is extremely effective for working with sensory impaired children. They not only enjoy the softness of the dog's fur, but the fact that the dog is alive, warm, and breathing is comforting and encouraging. Children love dogs so much that they are motivated to move, walk, crawl, and relax in cases where no other therapy has been successful.
herapy dog handler Deborah Nozawa says that the healing benefits she has witnessed derived from animal therapy is "miraculous." For example, a therapy dog named Cassi worked successfully with a visually impaired child that also had numerous other disabilities. The child started out curled up on a beanbag chair, and Cassie approached her gently and quietly, nudging her arm with her cold nose. The dog then pushed her muzzle under the child's clenched hand and licked her. Before long, the child opened her hand and relaxed it. Then Cassie lay down next to the little girl, and the child relaxed her hands even more and was able to pet the dog. Soon the child was smiling.
Canine-Assisted Therapy is also extremely effective with children who have emotional and behavioral problems. A dog will cheer up a depressed child, calm down a hyperactive teenager, focus a teen with Attention Deficit Disorder, and bring comfort to kids recovering from substance abuse. Kids must learn how to treat the dog gently and with kindness, and once they learn how, this behavior can be applied to the way they treat others and to the way they treat themselves.
Interaction with the therapy dog also provides valuable insight for counselors and teachers working with kids in a rehab program, therapy program, or special school. This includes observing not only how a child interacts with the therapy dog, but also how he or she interacts with the other kids in the program when it is time to do certain tasks such as brushing or walking the dog.
The relationships children have with therapy dogs offer an opportunity for teachers and therapists to instigate discussions about their feelings and reactions to other situations in their lives. Kids are often hesitant to discuss their feelings, but when they're asked to talk about their feelings toward their animal friends, kids usually find it much easier to open up. Kids form bonds with these special dogs and the dogs respond with unconditional love and affection. Because dogs are so open with their affection, the child feels nurtured and gains a sense of self-worth and self-esteem.
Copper Canyon Academy, an all girls boarding school in Arizona, offers a Equine Assisted Therapy and Canine Assisted therapy. In addition to traditional and animal assisted therapy, Copper Canyon Academy offers girls college prep academics and extra-curricular activities and off-campus trips that promote further academic and personal growth.
Copper Canyon Academy's academic program, which is fully accredited by North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement, is designed to maximize a students learning potential, a joy of learning, and also utilizes a unique credit recovery program. All academic classes are taught by Arizona Certified Teachers.
Learn more about Copper Canyon Academy >>